Abstract
Hard carbon films were prepared by r.f. plasma chemical vapor deposition (p-CVD), using hydrocarbon gases diluted with hydrogen gas. A relationship between the film properties and plasma conditions were investigated with film deposition rate, optical emission spectroscopy and electrostatic probe technique. From these results, it seems that the ionic species in the plasma should play a important role for the formation of hard carbon films. The film structures deposited on several substrates were examined by transmission electron microprobe (TEM). Almost all of the films have dominantly amorphous structure, but contain diamond particles in the amorphous phase for the films prepared only from CH4 source gas. Typical hard carbon films have a half of diamond's hardness (about 4600 kg/mm2) and a high electric resistivity (>1010Ω⋅cm).
